Donovan: Your Constituents Want Face-to-Face Town Hall

Re: It’s Hard to be a Republican in Brooklyn – Donovan’s Constituents Protest Chamber Event, 2/6/17, by Liena Zagare

To the Editor,

I was one of the protesters who confronted Congressman Dan Donovan at the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce event, along with members of my group, Fight Back Bay Ridge.

We organized this action because we have tried multiple times to contact Donovan’s office to request a meeting, but none of our outreach has garnered a response.

Though Donovan claims to have an open door policy and says constituents need only ask for a meeting to have one, we have found this to be untrue.

In addition to in-person meetings, members of our group have requested a face-to-face Town Hall, as have progressives from Staten Island and other Bay Ridge organizations. Instead, Donovan intends to offer “tele-Town Halls,” which prevent him from having to meet his constituents and listen to our concerns.

If Donovan will not meet us in the appropriate ways using the established channels—meetings, Town Halls, and other events—his constituents will have no choice but to find him at outside events and shift the focus and tenor of those events to address our concerns.

We would much prefer a Town Hall to tracking him down in public, and the ball is now in his court.

Mallory McMahon
Bay Ridge, Brooklyn